Aside

Ira Glass, November 5th, 2003: For me, pushing myself is way more about “It’s hard to make something that’s interesting.” It’s really, really hard, and I’m sure we don’t succeed with every story on every show. Basically, anything that anyone makes… It’s like a law of nature, a law of aerodynamics, that anything that’s written or anything that’s created wants to be mediocre. The natural state of all writing is mediocrity. It’s all tending toward mediocrity in the same way…

The Grey Lady has just published a piece, in the Fashion section no less, about how (shocker!) people in hipster Brooklyn drink Fair Trade (omg!) coffee! No freakin’ way! Seriously guys, was it that much of a slow news day? Amid the wine bars and boutiques that line Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Jonathan Coulton, 36, a musician wearing black rectangular glasses, was hunched over a laptop at Gorilla Coffee, where a blackboard proclaims all its coffees are fair trade.…

Well, it’s after midnight here in Daejeon (Slogan: It’s Daejeon) and I’m about to begin my final week here in Korea. I’m back in Daejeon for the third time in as many weeks to interview for at least a third (if not fourth) time, Kilnam Chon, the father of the Internet in Korea. I don’t have the energy right now to write a whole narrative, so I’ll just give you some snippets of things that I’ve done in the last…

AP: NEW YORK (AP) — It was an ordeal that lasted 19 hours. In that span, a man bound a Columbia University graduate student in her apartment, raped her, doused her with hot water and bleach, slit her eyelids and finally set a fire before fleeing, police said. Police pressed a manhunt for the assailant in the April 13 attack, with investigators hoping any surviving DNA and a $12,000 reward for information leading to an arrest would produce fresh leads.…

My buddy Nate Cardozo just alerted me that UC Hastings has been evacuated and shut down due to an Internet posting, which might be this one (mirror here): “Date: April 18th, 2007 1:35 PM Author: Trustafarian I went to bed all set for “Bloody Wednesday,” but when I woke — to sun, to flowers in bloom — I just couldn’t bring myself to suit up. Maybe tomorrow; I hear rain’s in the forecast.”

I think it goes without saying that this whole incident where the crazed South Korean kid who shot up Virginia Tech is incredibly tragic. My heart goes out to the affected families. The most fascinating factoid (in a weird way) about this whole incident was pointed out by Michael Hurt, an American living in Seoul: Then there’s the interesting fact that the record holder for the worst shooting in world history, Woo Bom-gon (우범근), is also Korean, this time a…

Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days. I was down in Daejeon for the weekend and am now back in Seoul for the rest of the week. I’ll be here until Friday, when I head down to Busan. I hope to sate you with some photos until I get some writing in. As usual, all photos are here.

All of my photos can be found here, but these are some of the highlights:

Adjacent to my table for one, the only word that I can make out is “computer virus.” Sitting a few meters away from me are six Korean men in their mid-50s, possibly older. They have rounds of various empty coffee cups scattered in front of them and seem to be engaged in some animated conversation. Some look attentive, others disengaged. But me? I’m the only one in the place who is obviously not Korean. And yet, minutes before, the friendly…